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Further Workplace Health and Safety bosses will be grilled at the inquest into the Dreamworld disaster today, after a leading inspector admitted he had "no confidence" in the emergency procedures in place on the Thunder River Rapids ride.

Car bomb at Afghan air base kills seven

A suicide attacker has set off a vehicle laden with explosives outside a gate at a sprawling base for US and NATO operations, killing seven civilians in a second suicide bombing in as many days in southern Afghanistan.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack at a crowded entrance to Kandahar Air Field, claiming they were targeting a NATO convoy.

Two witnesses said they suspected the suicide car bomber was trying to hit US forces because he detonated his explosives just as two pickup trucks, which they say are often used by American special forces, were leaving the base on Thursday afternoon.

The coalition said no NATO troops were killed. It does not disclose information about injured troops.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef said NATO forces opened fire after the bombing and killed three of the seven civilians who died.

The coalition denied this, saying there was no fighting after the blast.

"There was no follow-on attacks and no disruption to operations" at the base, the coalition said.

Earlier, officials reported that the suicide bomber was walking near the gate, but the Afghan Ministry of Interior later said the attacker was driving a Toyota Corolla.

Zalmai Ayubi, the spokesman for the Kandahar provincial governor, said two children were among the seven civilians killed. He said eight other civilians, including two children and one woman, were injured in the explosion.

Gates to the larger US bases in Afghanistan often are crowded with trucks waiting to deliver goods and services, and local Afghans going to or coming back from jobs on the compounds.

On Wednesday, 13 civilians, including three Afghan policemen, were killed when a suicide attacker blew himself up in a bazaar in neighbouring Helmand Province.

The Helmand governor's office said 22 others were wounded in the blast in Kajaki district.

The coalition said some international troops were killed and wounded in the attack, but did not disclose details.

Late Wednesday, NATO reported that one coalition trooper had been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, but would not say whether the service member died in the Kajaki bombing, or some other incident.

Meanwhile, in northern Afghanistan, 29 people have died in avalanches reported since Monday in Badakhshan province, according to the Afghan National Disaster Management Agency.

At least 40 more people have been injured and rescuers were struggling to reach areas of Afghanistan's mountainous northeast that have been cut off by heavy snows.

Roads outside the provincial capital of Faizabad were blocked by at least two metres of snow, the agency said.